Marketing to an International Audience

Breaking into the overseas market can be a tough nut to crack. Yes, Americans spend top-dollar on products online, but the international market is just as lucrative. If you are looking to get a slice of the global market, you need to know how to market to foreign buyers by using certain things to your advantage.

Of course, it’s not going to be easy – nothing worthwhile ever is – but with these tips, it might just be easier, covering tactics like global-friendly SEO to employee advocacy.

Customize SEM

When it comes to online marketing, especially to a global audience, SEO is certainly paramount. You need to up your search engine marketing game. Of course, it all boils down to identifying and focusing on keywords specific to the target country. Get to know your audience; it’s a crucial part of your SEM strategy.

Always keep abreast of hot products trends in the said country, and get involved. Why? Trendy products are hot topics for everyday conversations. Use buzz words from these trends to focus your keywords better, and create more traction around your products.

Also, go for a variety of keywords so you can spruce up the organic ranking of your site on major and foreign search engines (read: Google, Bing, Baidu (China), Yandex (Russia), and Yahoo).

Optimize Site Design

Here’s the thing: one thing in one country might mean something else in another. Make your website global-friendly by reducing the use of text in images, and make sure that all the text can be easily translated by tools like Google Translate. Don’t forget to see to it that your shopping cart is also global-friendly, currencies included.

It also pays to research your audience as if you are going to move to the target country. Take for instance a company that wants to break into the Chinese market. The more they know about China’s favorites, like slang, lifestyle, cultural nuggets, the easier it will be to tailor their website design for the market.

Have Your Employees Advocate Your Brand

Employee advocacy has gained traction across the globe. And for good reason; customers worldwide understand that employees know your brand and products best. So if your employees become brand ambassadors, the international market is certain to heed their word.

By creating a robust employee advocacy program, you open yourself up to the possibility of reaching other markets in an easier way than what is perceived. Let’s take for example that your employees might have friends and family in other countries. When they share your brand content, your brand effectively travels overseas even without much-invested effort on your side.